I went down to Sioux Falls, SD last Friday to catch up with Barack Obama. I've been a fan of his since I heard his speech on Martin Luther King Day of 2007. When I heard that I had the chance to meet him, I wanted to see if he lived up to the hype.
And lemme tell you...
The man is for real!!!
Everything you've heard about him being charismatic and having that swagger is true. Couple things surprised me though: he's not taller than me, he's funnier than I expected and most of all... the man is the BEST politician in the world. I don't mean that in the sense he's the best of the people we call politicians, I mean that in the sense that he's the best at all the things that make politicians good.
Obama was in Sioux Falls to attend a big rally being held at the Convention Centre. Beforehand, he scheduled a private meeting with the Tribal Chairmen of the South Dakota tribes of the Lakota. And that's where I come in. My good relative Harold Condin is the Executive Assistant to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Joe Brings Plenty. My dad and I convinced them to let us roll with them into the meeting. There was a funny moment where we were going through one of the checkpoints and they crossed Joe and Harold's name off and their like "ok, who are you two guys? If you're not on the list we're not letting you in." We kinda looked at our feet for a few seconds before Harold jumped in and told em that we were "Steve Maran" and "Buddy Knife". So as far as the secret service is concerned, I am CRST Councilman Buddy Knife.
Security was ridiculously tight, plus we were on Indian time, but we beat Obama there. A room of like 30 Lakotas and 2 Ojibways posing as their Tribal Councillors. When the man rolled in he was smiling and people gave him a standing ovation. He was followed by his staff (two of whom are native) and a handfull of secret service agents. Senator Tom Daschle introduced him, his one stand out line was that "great nations, like great men, keep their words". And then he said that as the next President, Obama would keep his word. Or his nation's word. I was too busy taking pictures to figure out exactly what Daschle meant.
Then Barack speaks. And he's got that big voice, instantly recognizable. I think to myself this is so fuckin cool! He's calm and his energy fills the room. He wins the crowd over instantly with a few choice lines like "Nation to Nation relationship", "Tribal Sovereignty" and "Indian Country". The first two tell us that he's not going to be the average "great white father", and the last one let's us know that he speaks our language. I was half expecting him to say "Indian Taco" or "cho".
Here's what he said. His first promise is that he's going to put someone in the white house to deal specifically with Native American issues. That's his first step to cutting the bureaucracy at the B.I.A. The three main policy points that he drives home are Health care, Education and Economic Development. He wants to improve Health conditions on Reservations. He points out that the USA spends more money per capita on the health care needs of inmates in federal institutions than it does on Native Americans. That's fucked. As far as education goes, he's all for it. And he's in favor of it being culturally appropriate and of the highest quality. And then you have economic development. He want more options than Tribal casinos, and he wants these new options to be green. Getting green by getting green (that lines a free-bee if he wants to use it :P). He gives the example of wind farms in the state of South Dakota.
The video I posted on facebook has the concluding remarks of his speech.He then takes questions and comments from the people there. This is what impressed me most. Most of the questions were about social problems like Policing, Housing and some-long-rambling-spiel-about-from-some-old-dude that I didn't bother to tune into. Barack on the other hand was all ears. He listened patiently to each person, giving them their due. He jumped in and asked intelligent questions if some of their comments assumed some info that he didn't have (like who makes decisions as to when and where on-rez housing hoes up). He kept the discussion moving without cutting people off. As someone facilitates things like that on occasion, I appreciated his finesse.
Then it was gift giving time, and you know how Indians are, so it was basically each tribe trying to outdo each other with the presents. I think in the end he got a bad ass Buffalo Robe with a painted design on the hide side, some blankets, a war club, a shield, a carving, an Indian name and a Pendleton jacket (from CRST councillors Buddy Knife and Steve Maran :P). Obama was good natured about it all, smiling and cracking jokes with the peeps. He was playful with the war club and the carving, reminding me of how native kids are when they're the centre of attention. He took lots of pictures, most of which were with me. I was getting my dad to take them, and he is of the ancient persuasion so he took like 15 blurry pictures. I had to keep bugging Barack to take a picture with me and finally I got a decent one. GOD DAMN! My dad was laughing after saying he thought I was gonna trip the fuck out on him. But no. I don't do that to the old guy. Plus I didn't want to get tackled by the secret service. Still, Obama was cool as hell and kept talking to me through the never ending series of photos I demanded of him. When we gave him the jacket, Joe told him that the blanket was a replica presented to President Harding in 1923. Obama deadpanned "I hope I'm a better President than him."
Come to think of it, Secret Service agents were combing the grounds from about 12pm that day. They had cordoned off certain parking lots, even sidewalks were assigned their own police detail who had to check your credentials. On the way to the meeting room, you got the metal detector and the pat down. Most action I would get all weekend. Talking to people in the states, everyone thinks the threat of Obama being assassinated is very real. They are doing their best to protect him. All the security also drives home the scale of what the guys doing, he's got dozens of community leaders, scores of secret service agents, hundreds of police officers and thousands of people to come out in a place like Sioux Falls is pretty amazing. Imagine what the shit is like in Chicago or New York. Nutso.
After the meeting was over, I think everyone went outside and dropped like a hundred bucks each on Obama gear. No wonder the guys campaign is flush with cash. His campaign has a definite energy surrounding it. Case in point. I wore an Obama t-shirt to the mall of America the next day and I had a ton of people come up to me and talk about Obama. I turned into campaigner mode, and had them all agree to vote in November. The fact that people are so excited by a candidate that his face on a t-shirt can set them off on 15 minutes of convo with a stranger is pretty special.
So what does it all mean?
I get the impression that a lot of people think that Barack Obama's success comes from some combination of Charisma and Affirmative Action. And that's probably part of it. But really, the guy is successful because he is a BEAST when it comes to playing the game of politics. Everyone knows he's a great public speaker. The fact that he came into a room full of natives who distrust the federal government and had them eating out the palm of his hand without promising any specifics was something to behold. He's got a certain kind of patience that I will never have, the kind that makes people believe you care (believe me I will never give a fuck :P). He's got a good team. He knows the law and history. It's almost as though he's been carefully putting the pieces together for his entire life... Hmmmm lol jk.
I went in with an Idealized version of Obama, I expected to meet the rock star. Instead I met an intelligent, intense and ambitious man who is better at the white man's game than any of the white men (or women) out there. Awesome.